Why I’m voting for @WalshFreedom STILL

Why I’m voting for @WalshFreedom STILL

﻿ In the state of Colorado, you must tell the Sect. of State that you are no longer running in order to have you name (most likely already printed on the ballot) to no longer have votes attributed to it. When Sen. Bennett dropped out of the Democrat primary he did that. However, Rep. Joe Walsh did not.

I am, as short as my life is, a life-long Democrat. Until recently that is. After Feinstein and Sanders went after nominees based on their religion and Tom Perez said one must support abortion to be a Democrat (a statement recently restated by Sanders, et al.), I took the opportunity to change my registration upon moving to Colorado from West Virginia. I am now an independent, unaffiliated. This means little in regards to my personal politics, but I am now able to vote in either the Republican or the Democrat primary. And I guess the Democrats do not get to count me.

I received my ballots after Joe had ended his campaign. He is correct – it is a cult. This should sort of stop me from voting for him, right? After all, my sympathies lie with Joseph and Amy on the Democrat side, and the more so after she allowed that the Democrats should be open to pro-life supporters. I am pro-union, pro-civil rights. On the other hand, as a small business owner, I am pro-get the Government out of my way and let me work. I am also a big fan of civil liberties and a non-interventionist. I am pro-2nd, even though I am not NRA. And never will be. I have guns. Several. On the other hand, I believe that some people should not have them. I am not necessary a fan of red flag laws, but something should be done to keep the guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. (Ill, not disordered). I am pro-life. Or, as Bill Clinton famously said, “safe, legal, and rare.” I am also pro-life in that I do not support the death penalty, support a public safety net, and find the immigration crisis at the border spiritually disgusting. It is unAmerican.

In other words, my allegiance to the two party system, and one in particular is dead.

So back to the question of why I am voting for Joe Walsh STILL. Because every vote in a Republican primary is a black eye to Donald J. Trump, our 45th president. BUT, that is not really enough. Why Walsh and not Weld? Rep. Walsh has not always been someone I could vote for, however. I could vote for the other Republicans on the ballot. Or I could vote for one of the Democrats. His politics was not always – and maybe in some aspects, still aren’t, my politics. Yet, Joe has done something rarely seen in the world. Changed his mind. Apologized. He has moved into a position that I think is more reasonable (to me) in some areas. But, he has admitted and learned from his mistakes. That to me is a breath of fresh air. Like Bill Weld, he has had the guts to take on not just a president, but a cult. He has put his career on the line and challenged an American populist, one that he helped to create. But, before that, he admitted his faults with integrity and has since then challenged the members of his party for their support of authoritarianism.

That’s why I’m still voting for him. Because in the end, it is more than giving Trump a political black-eye, it is about living into my hope that we as individuals can change, and fight to correct our mistakes, can fight to challenge the ills of American society – even if it costs us our career – even if it was more profitable to go with the flow. Joe is not going with the flow. He is challenging it. We are in a moment in history when we need all good people to come to the aid of their country. Joe is doing that. And I support that.